Aloha, new here. Ive been lurking for a while now thou. We just purchased out first wind powered boat and I have many questions. This one is easy. Is there a way to upgrade an existing winch to a self tailer? That is an add on tailer without changing the winch?
Mahalo

You used to be able to get a grooved rubber ring that was meant to snap onto the top of a standard winch that would act sort of like a self tailing setup. I don't think they worked as well as the real deal, as they have no means of peeling off the line once it's been around the jaws that grip the line.

Could be a cheap temporary tryout, though, and if nothing else might eliminate the need for a cleat in that area.

It may be possible to buy the tailing topworks from someone like Lewmar, but I've not seen them.

You'll get opinions pro and con about self tailers. Personally, I don't like them at all for racing, but wouldn't do without them for cruising, and especially for sailing short-handed. IMHO, when racing, they make it a little difficult to strip the sheets off the winches quickly when they're under load. I might have a different opinion if I were racing a bigger boat (over about 50 feet)

I have used "Winchers" a few times, and, for cruising or sailing short-handed, they seem to work almost as well as self-tailers.

If you go the winchers route...don't trust them to hold the line...they don't grip the line as well as an actual self-tailing winch does, and if you don't cleat the line off, under a heavy load, they can slip or let the line go completely.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Telstar 28
New England

You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)

If you're new to the Sailnet Forums... please read this To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts..

By choosing to post the reply above you agree to the rules you agreed to when joining Sailnet.
Click Here to view those rules.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the SailNet Community forums, you must first register. Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.Please note: After entering 3 characters a list of Usernames already in use will appear and the list will disappear once a valid Username is entered.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.